Sparing them struggles

Sparing them struggles, self-denials, and hardships

Our best friends are not those who make life easy for us; our best friends are those who put courage, energy, and resolution into our hearts. There are thousands of lives dwarfed and hurt irreparably, by pampering .

Parents ofttimes, in the very warmth and eagerness of their love, do sad harm to their children's lives, by over-helping them; by doing things for them which it were better to teach them to do for themselves; by sparing them struggles, self-denials, and hardships — which it were far better for the children to meet.

Friendship is in constant danger of over-helping. When one we love comes to us with a difficulty — it is love's first impulse to solve it for him; whereas it would be a thousand times better kindness, if we put him in the way of solving it for himself.

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